Jason Roy guides Delhi Daredevils home in last-ball IPL 2018 thriller vs Mumbai Indians

In a format that’s all about seizing the opportunity, Jason Roy grabbed it with both hands as he guided Delhi Daredevils to a thrilling win over Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. () ()

Daredevils required 11 off the last over bowled by Mustafizur Rehman. Roy took 10 from the first two balls but couldn’t connect the next three, freezing under pressure before managing to get the last one over the close-in fielders to guide Daredevils to their first win of the IPL this season. His unbeaten 91 off 53 balls included six fours and as many sixes.

Roy has been waiting in the wings since last season. He made his IPL debut with the Gujarat Lions in 2017 but only featured in three matches as Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum opened the batting for the Lions.

Picked by Daredevils in the auction, he had to wait once again as New Zealand’s Colin Munro was preferred over him in the first two matches.

The Englishman has been in great form this season, batting impressively in the limited-overs format Down Under which included a 180 against Australia at the MCG.

For Mumbai Indians, it was their third straight defeat on the trot. In all three matches they were in the contest till the last over.

In the end, it all came down to clinging onto the momentum. Daredevils managed to do so but Mumbai failed.

Mumbai had a great opening partnership of 102 between Suryakumar Yadav (53) and Evin Lewis (48), which was Mumbai’s best in the IPL history. They scored 84 in the powerplay, once again their best-ever in the IPL, but after that their innings somewhat faltered. At one point they looked to be zipping past 200 but was restricted to 194.

Ishan Kishan (44) was the only one, after the departure of Suryakumar and Lewis, who managed to make some significant contribution. The rest — Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya — weren’t that effective.

For Daredevils, Roy did carry the bat all the way but received good support from Rishabh Pant (47) and Shreyas Iyer (27).

He had three partnerships of fifty or more runs –- one at the top with skipper Gambhir (15), one in the middle, of 69, with Pant which practically set the match up for Daredevils and one in the end with Iyer, a 60-run one that made sure that Daredevils got over the line without any hiccup.

While bowling as well, Daredevils outperformed their Mumbai counterparts. They pegged back Mumbai, who at one point were running away with the game. They also picked crucial wickets to break their momentum.

Rahul Tewatia dismissed Suryakumar and Lewis in quick succession to break Mumbai’s momentum. Later, Dan Christian got rid of Ishan Kishan (44), who was starting to open up, and the dangerous Kieron Pollard (0) on back-to-back deliveries in the 16th over to make sure they didn’t take the game away from Daredevils.

Mumbai will have to look at how they close out games. They should have posted a huge total on Saturday, especially after their 100 came in just 8.3 overs but in the next 11.3 over they managed just 94. The worst was the last four overs, where they scored just 27 and hit only one boundary.

In the tournament opener against Chennai Super Kings as well they failed to get out those big hits in the later stages and again on Saturday which they must worry the think-tank.